I told you so!!!

My weather predictions, so far, are completely on target.

 I have clearly missed my calling.

In other news, that Progressive Direct chick is kind of creepin' me out...

Practical Questions for my readers in Poland (some Krakow specific) ...

I am working on getting all our homeschooling materials together and realized I don't have answers to questions about the best place to buy supplies and books.

If you speak English, where do you buy books for your family? Favorite bookstores? Amazon.uk has been suggested and I hear you get free shipping if you spend over a certain amount (similar to Amazon.com). Is all this true?


Where do you buy high quality (Crayola brand) colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc. School supplies, just the basics?


Where do you buy office products? Same place as school supplies? What about bulletin boards, cork-boards,dry erase markers? Poster boards?


Where do you buy craft extras? Fabric, notions for sewing, knitting supplies, glitter, sequins, etc?


Is there a chain of Thrift shops in Poland like "Goodwill?" Or are they all independently owned and you just have to know where to look? What are they called in Polish?


I know that many of these questions can be answered quickly when I get there but I won't have to do too much searching if I can just show up with a list of store names to check out.

Thank you to all who respond!

Clash of Cultures: Eating the top of the banana

In the spirit of pointing out completely banal cultural differences I have to ask this question:

Do you eat the top of the banana? You know the part at the very tip where you opened the banana, right under  the skin at the very top? That part? Yeah. Do you eat that part? Is this a Polish thing? Is this just his family? Is this one of those things I never knew about and my parents have been putting my life in danger by not teaching me?


Here is what happens in our family. See if you can relate.

Martin offers the children a banana. They all, of course, want a banana. Except Lina who doesn't like bananas. He opens the banana, bites off the tip of the top part, spits it into the trashcan, and gives the rest to the children.

Is this you?
Do you do this?
Ask yourself: "Is this normal?" "Is this necessary?"
If the answer is yes to either of these questions, ask yourself "Why?"
If you don't have an answer to that question then "google it."
Here are some possible keywords/search terms:

 "why do some people bite off the end of the banana?"
"is there something wrong with the end of the banana?"
 "my husband is paranoid and thinks the end of the banana is dangerous if eaten, is he the only one?"
"are European bananas poisonous?"
"is there such a thing as an "European banana"?"
"if there is no such thing as an "European banana" then can Europeans be experts at bananas?"
"if Europeans are not experts at bananas is it possible that they have been taught misconceptions, even, shall we say, lies, about bananas?"
"am I more right than my husband?"

Today he was training the boys on the proper way to do this now that they are old enough to spit out their own banana tips.




First of all, I guarantee you that all of these questions have been asked by some on a Yahoo answer forum somewhere, have you ever read those questions people ask the WWW?!!? (gems such as, "do sheep shrink in the rain?" and " what should I do to be less crazy?") Pretty crazy.  But I'm not sure it's as crazy as a grown man insisting that he, and I, and our children, for ever more, bite the end off the banana and spit it into the trash can rather than swallow it. Ahh, the things we do to keep harmony in the home.
 I just don't know sometimes.

and now... enjoy this video... a blast from the past... involving ...  completely healthy and safe, from toe to tip... bananas...

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On a slightly related note...

Update on the hair and such and a frivolous book rec..... I apologize to all of my gentleman readers who may have no interest in hair and skin care, I can't please all the people all the time. ;)

The hair: I gave up after two weeks. My son was having his birthday party and it was just too much to bare (bear? they both work). The oil from my hair was all over my pillow which I failed to recognize until abut 3-4 days in when my face began to break out horribly in some of the worst acne I have seen in years. I say to Martin, "I just figured it was natural hair oil, it's natural so it shouldn't hurt my face?! wahhhh"  And he replies, "well, acne is natural too... you big hippie!" Ugh.   So, I ditched that whole thing real quick. I am now only shampooing every other day and then perhaps down to every three days, in an attempt to just cut back on all chemicals and what not in the hair and on the body.

As to chemicals. A couple weeks ago I added a new book to my Kindle (my one electronic splurge other than this laptop...I love it!) called "Babushka's Beauty Secrets." (completely coincidental that the woman is European, I swear I am not a one issue woman, despite what my blog may imply!) Basically just all natural ingredients from around the home for various hair and skin and overall body care. I like it because she basically gives you the recipes for natural skin moisturizers, lip gloss, face masks, etc. from items found in your own kitchen. I have used only the egg whites for a face mask and it worked wonderfully. I will be using some of the lip moisturizing recipes next and want to try and make my own scented lotion since the really nice scented lotion is so expensive. And I have done the oil extraction method on my face which I also liked (not from the book but suggested by a friend). The raw honey bit didn't work for me but I like the idea of using natural oils on my skin.  All of these ideas can be found on the internet I'm sure, for free, but I wouldn't know where to start, and I don't like looking at a computer screen to read. It hurts my brain.

I figure, if I can memorize some of these natural methods of body care, use them, and they work, then I can go just about anywhere in the world and manage to keep looking my age, and save tons of money in the process...have you seen how much one bottle of Oil of Olay face wash is at the store? I'll feel like a fool if I don't try the natural path first. It has worked so well in other areas of my life, I just can't stop here. I don't know why. It's just the way I am. ;)

Clash of Cultures: The airing of dirty...duvets.

I woke up yesterday incredibly ill. The kind of ill that I am well accustomed to. No, not morning sickness, as that has only been my pleasure four times. But, the unmistakable symptoms of strep throat. Which now have been my pleasure 5 times, in the last 12 months, along with one bout of Laryngitis.

It's not a fun illness, and Martin and I will be seriously discussing having my tonsils removed before we leave in three months since the last thing I want to do is go through surgery the minute we step off the plane in a foreign (to me) country.  Luckily, you don't need your tonsils to work in order to type...

Bed Linens. After two days of chills and sweats, mine were put to good use and now thoroughly covered in strep throat ickiness. As my children are being taken care of by others as I wait for the antibiotics to do their magic I at least have the time and energy to change the sheets on my bed and air out the comforter.

Duvet, pillows, and blanket airing out on our playscape. 

There was a fly on my comforter when I took this picture! A fly!! See what happens when you air stuff outside?! YUCK!

And this got me to thinking. In just about every Polish yard or terrace you will find this....

...from time to time. The airing out of bed linens.  Now this could just be Texas. This could just be me. But we never did this growing up. Our neighbors never did this growing up. I'm pretty sure our HOA would have a fit if we tried to do this. But in Poland that *is* what you do. Everyone does it, all the time. At any given moment, driving down any street, there will be several homes with comforters and pillows hanging out windows, looped over terrace railings, and hanging on the "bar thingy (the Polish word eludes me but there is a word for it, I'm sure of it)..."

The big metal bars. The picture is blurry because it had the least amount of people in it and I wanted to use one that didn't show too many family members without asking their permission. I hope Kasia and Karolina will forgive me! (taken 7 years ago)

It is expressly for throwing the duvet and pillows over the bars and letting them air out. As well as beating rugs and what not. Again, not something that I really grew up doing. We vacuumed the rugs and then maybe shook them out but never really beat them.

Back to the bed linens themselves.

The beds are made with a fitted sheet and a duvet with a duvet cover, that's it. No regular sheet in between the duvet and the fitted sheet. Ever.

I remember commenting on this the first time I slept on a bed in Poland. I remarked how there was no sheet between me and the comforter. I thought it was kind of icky. I was taught that the sheet between the fitted and the comforter was to keep the comforter from actually touching your body so you don't have to wash it as often, especially since a lot of the comforters I had growing up were "dry-clean" only or wouldn't really get clean in the washer.

It really is just a cultural thing, and I suppose one that is more European than expressly Polish. I do know that my mother, from whom I learned all my homemaking skills, would never make a bed without a fitted and regular sheet. And I dare say she might find it a bit tacky to have your personal bed linens airing out for all to see. But that's how they do it, and that's how we'll do it. (usually I just wash everything in my super huge washing machine, but we all know that would never work).

In Poland, do the sheet sets come with a regular sheet too and they never get used or is the set a fitted sheet and then a duvet cover to fit the correct size mattress and duvet? 


Guess I'll find out the first time I buy sheets. And I guess we'll have to install one of those bar thingy's in our backyard, which are clearly good for so many other things than just airing out your dirty duvet. I can just imagine how many different ways the boys will find to injure themselves...

1 year blog anniversary

For you, Olivia...

Why thank you, Olivia.

My message to you all... in Polish... with Martin's help...

translation:

" Hello, Friends and Family! Thank you all for offering advice and support to me over the past year. Only 3 months until we step off the plane in Krakow. We are counting down the days. We can't wait to say hello to everyone in Poland, in person. Until then a special hello to Babcia in Bielsko and a Happy Birthday to Karolina!






Here's what I was going to say, without Martin's help...

translation:

"First, I need to say, I'm sorry... Hello, friend-o and a families. I say thank you to everything.  Your to help and your, um, to help, on the whole year! Only three months and we will be Krakow. We are counting days. The very big hello for all in Poland. Hi, great grandma! And happy birthday, Karolina! And I promise: I have not been drinking."

God, help us all, but especially me, in 3 months from now.


But no, seriously, thanks for following along for a whole year. Already a whole year and so far nothing has deterred us or stood in the way. We are actually, really going. I appreciate all of my readers, your helpful comments, and the many emails full support and advice, it has made these preparations so much easier, and far less stressful.

Until tomorrow...

Blog faux pas - Around the clock maintenance and Nowa Huta

I have a couple days before my 1 year blog anniversary.  I'm having a hard time getting the whole thing to look and feel the way I want it, so you'll have to excuse the endless amount of background color changes and blog title pictures (The current photo under the blog title was taken on our honeymoon on the way to Zakopane). It is still not quite ready, so I can't promise it won't change again between now and Thursday.

With that said, I guarantee you will want to be back here on April 12th (Thursday). It is the official one year anniversary of this blog and there will be a video that you all will not want to miss. Family in Poland for sure will want to tune in and anyone else who loves a good laugh.

In the mean time I thought you might like a lovely look at the area of town we will be moving to in the immediate future... courtesy of Google Streetview... (technically we will be moving to a little "village" on the outskirts of Nowa Huta but Martin won't let me post the actual house on here because he says it's too much personal info for the www. So practical and safe and BORING...but I will comply...)


Nowa Huta ("new steel mill") - I actually really like this part of town, some of it's architecture I especially like...

 and some of it's architecture is the absolute worst, although bloki are not only in Nowa Huta. The main square is called "Ronald Reagan Square." (originally named Plac Centralny)

Makes me feel a little closer to home. ;)

  You can see the symmetry in the design of the area from the view here...

symmetry

 This was done purposely to be  representative of the "ideal" Communist town. And apparently the ideal Communist town also includes a huge steel mill (the largest in all of Poland) to pollute everything within a 10 mile radius. Makes sense to me. The steel mill is no longer in use as a mill but it's still there, and slowly being converted to house other, more congenial, pursuits.

The "candy cane" towers of the mill from a distance. You can see how huge it is.

I'm really looking forward to living in this area and learning more about the history myself. Of course, Martin can tell me everything, but I've never actually had the chance to to spend time just strolling the streets, and it's something I want to do before everything starts to become "just part of the scenery."

Remember to check back on Thursday!

Smingus Dyngus!

Here's my post from last year....educate yourselves and then start dousing each other!

We were up early and we were all soaked by 9am. Nothing like being woken up with a big cup of water in your face.

You are angry at first...

...and then you retaliate.

(we also went to the live webcam I mentioned here and waited to see it happen in public in Krakow but Martin says he thinks it's been outlawed downtown because complete strangers were getting soaked by school children...  you should still check it out...it's  beautiful day there today, although a bit cold to be covered in water)

Texas in the Spring.

 Outside, here in Texas, it is absolutely beautiful.  The wildflowers are everywhere. My current blog header picture is a view of what some of the fields look like out in the hill country. Amazing. I haven't seen wildflowers like this for at least 5 years thanks to the drought.

I have to think that just a bit of that is the Holy Spirit knowing I'll be missing them.